The Islamic State and the Caliphate. EUROPE IN DANGER

03/2016 www.csm.org.pl

Last week’s Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station blasts in Brussels once more demonstrated how insecure Europe is today. 35 people died, over 300 Mahan Charmshir were injured. Luckily, one of the bombs did not

Born in 1991 in Tehran, Iran, he explode, otherwise the balance would have been much currently studies International Relations at the University of worse. The Islamic State (called ISIS or IS) took Warsaw. Earlier, he studied responsibility for these suicide attacks performed by architecture at UiTM University in Malaysia and got MBA in two brothers el-Bakraoui, around 30 years old, both Brand Management in Tehran. He worked as PR manager in Muslims. ISIS is much more than a terrorist group. Aftabnet Advertising company It has its leaders, structure, financial resources, deep for 2 years. He is interested in Middle East and peace studies. ideological background and an idea of the Caliphate,

attractive for a large number of frustrated Muslims from all around the world who join ISIS’s ranks every day.

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On 13 November, 2015, in Paris 137 civi- grate Muslim world under one leadership, lian lives were ended in a terrorist attack present in the history of Islam since the organised by ISIS. According to human death of the Prophet1. rights organisations that report on the Syrian war, each day 121 people are killed in Born in a stable but not a horse armed conflicts or air strikes, or else die of When Jihadi John, a British ISIS butcher, starvation. What had started as a democratic was killed in during American drone wave of the "Arab Spring" against the rule strike, he was replaced by Siddhartha Dhar, of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, ended a Hindu-British citizen. Before he left Lon- up in a clash between the old regime and a don for in 2015, he become a pro- new and ever stronger entity: ISIS. ISIS public figure appearing in the British The organisation was created as a terrorist media. In an interview for the CBS's "60 group to oppose the domination of the West Minutes", while questioned about feeling after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. In just British, he answers: I identify myself as a a decade it conquered half of Syria and a Muslim. If I was born in a stable, I am not quarter of Iraq, establishing the so called going to be a horse. If I was born in Nazi "Islamic State" supported by numerous Germany, I’m not going to be a Nazi. I Muslims, especially young men, including mean this is just an island I was just born in. those who were living in the West. In a video material presenting him as a new ISIS killer, he threatens Western countries, ISIS’s strength does not come from 3 billion especially Great Britain. How strange it is USD generated annually by selling oil, nor that a leader of a small island threatens us from regional or international support. Its with a handful of planes – he says, grinning. increase in power is mostly due to the frus- tration of millions of young Muslims who

don’t agree with the Western vision of the 1 The was proclaimed by global world which brings them to the ISIS in June 2014. Read more: B. Roggio, ISIS announces formation of Caliphate, rebrands as margin of the so called "civilised societies". "Islamic State", http://www.longwarjournal.org/ In their eyes, this civilization doesn’t have achives/2014/06/isis_announces_formation_of_ values or ideals, and it should be replaced ca.php. by the Muslim Caliphate - an idea to inte-

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The film also shows the execution of 5 which have had a serious impact on interna- people who are accused to be spies. tional relations until today.

Why is ISIS’s ideology attractive for young The Turkish Republic, created in 1923 British citizens like Siddhartha Dhar? What thanks to the successful military operation makes young Muslim-British, Muslim- of the Turkish army and its leader Mustafa French or Muslim-Belgian citizens leave Kemal Atatürk, distanced itself from the their life in London, Paris or Brussels and history of the Ottoman Empire, introduced join ISIS for ? What is the fuel to the the Western concept of the secular state, as engine of ISIS’s recruitment all around the well as westernised its elites. At the same world? What is behind the idea of life under time, new Arab countries were created the flag of the Islamic Caliphate and Sharia around Turkey and put under the mandate law? To answer these questions, we have to of the Allied powers. After the Second go back almost 100 years. On August 10, World War, they gained independence. 1920, the Ottoman Empire, one of the most Moreover, in 1948, the Jewish sovereign important and influential powers in the country was founded in their neighbour- international order, was dissolved by treaty hood, in the heart of former Ottoman Em- of Sèvres. Together with the Empire, the pire, in Arabs’ land, inhabited by Islamic Caliphate was brought to its end. speaking people.

Roots of clash of civilisations There were Arab leaders who tried in vain to prevent the progressive dismantling of From the beginning of the 16th century, the the Muslim strength and significance in the Ottoman Empire was one of the most im- world. Some of them, like Gamal Abdel portant global players. It was an entirely Nasser, President of Egypt, attempted to Muslim state under the Sultan’s rule. It position themselves as bellwethers of the occupied a large area of Middle East and new-born Arab, and in particular, Muslim Arabic territories, but also half of the Bal- world by promoting pan-Arabism, but kans and Greece. The dissolution of this painfully failed. This failure was empha- superpower after the First World War led to sised by everyday advances of Israeli troops a number of socio-political consequences and peremptory support of Western coun- tries. On the other hand, the Middle East

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countries soon became the battlefield of the which at its height was one of the most superpowers of the Cold War: the US and powerful empires of all time, comprising all Soviet Union. Both sides were trying to of Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, most of increase their dominance in the region. Georgia, the North Caucasus, Iraq, , These actions caused dozen of coups and and Afghanistan, as well as parts of modern revolutions in the young Arab states. At this day Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, moment, a revolution in Iran – a country and Turkmenistan. The successive Iranian which was historically against the old Ot- dynasties, especially the last one, Pahlavi, toman Empire and new Arab states – has concentrated on secularisation and moderni- changed fundamentally the dynamics in the sation of Iran. However, they still main- region. tained opposing policies towards its neighbours. This period brings us to the last Role of Iran days of the Ottoman Empire’s existence and the beginning of a new international order. Ancient Persia was a superpower at that time. Iran, the heir of this proud tradition, After creation of Israel, the differences was always a serious threat to the Eastern between Iran and the new-born Arab states border of the Ottoman Empire. Besides entered a new stage. Unlike the rest of frequent armed conflicts, the two Islamic countries’ leaders, Iranian prime neighbours were engaged in an ideological minister went to an official visit to Israel in war. In the beginning of the 16th century, 1950. Moreover, Iran and Israel opened Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavi their embassies in 1970, in Tel Aviv and dynasty, seized power in Iran after 800 Tehran respectively. Israel, situated between years of Arab and Turkish rule. He decided hostile neighbours, with the US as its most to draw a line between Iran and the rest of important ally, considered Iran a regional the Muslim countries while converting Iran power who could help to strengthen its from Sunni to Shia Islam, and importing national security. On the other hand, Iran, religious authorities from the Levant. This trapped between countries following pan- transformation had its roots in an old dis- Arab ideology and the Soviet Union, de- pute over succession to the Islamic prophet, cided that the strategy of supporting its Mohammad. Ismail I promoted the Shia enemy’s enemy was a rational move. How- way of thinking all over the Persian Empire, ever, 9 years after the establishing of diplo-

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matic relations between Iran and Israel, the region. Most of them were located in history took its own path. countries with the highest population of Shiite Muslims, like Lebanon, Iraq and Islamic revolution Bahrain. Although Syria had a secular regime, the Assad dynasty supported the In 1979, the Islamic Revolution took place Iranian go-vernment since the beginning of in Iran, declaring anti-Western and pro- the war out of political reasons. Contrarily, Shiite Islamic slogans. As their first move, the Arab neighbouring countries dispelled even before the occupation of the US em- Iranian ambition of Shiite expansion by bassy in Tehran, Iranian revolutionaries cut arranging a coalition called the Gulf Coo- off the ties with the Israeli government. peration Council. The gap between Shiite Yasser Arafat, at the time chairman of the and Sunni increased day by day. Palestine Liberation Organisation, was the first foreign guest to officially visit Iran. The In 2003, with the invasion of Iraq by the US new regime symbolically handed over to and its allies to topple Saddam Hussein, Iran him the key to the first Palestinian embassy. found an opportunity to use the power Arafat talked about solidarity among Is- vacuum in Iraq for expanding its influence lamic countries to fight against Israel. How- in that country. Iraqi Shiites, which make up ever, the new alliance did not last long. In 65 percent of the Iraqi population, willingly 1980, Iraq invaded Iran with the support of accepted Iran’s support but the discrimina- Arab countries and the West. After the tory policy against Sunnis led by the Prime Islamic revolution in Iran, the Arab world Minister Nouri al-Maliki led Iraq to chaos. felt threatened by the rising Shiite power. On top of that, Iranian revolutionaries advo- The Sunni population was disillusioned cated the exportation of Shiite revolution to with the performance of the Iraq’s central their Sunni neighbours. This led the Islamic government unable or unwilling to keep the world to the highest point of tension since balance in the country. This occurred in the death of the Islamic Prophet. parallel with the "Arab Spring". In January 2011 Syrian people started protests against Right after the Islamic Revolution, and 8 President Bashar al-Assad who was in years of war with Iraq (1980-88), Iran cre- power since 2000 and ruled the country in a ated and supported militant groups active in dictatorial way. This movement has turned

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soon into a civil war between the govern- or solving their domestic problems to find ment, supported by Iran and Russia, and time to play an efficient role in the interna- opposition parties, supported mostly by the tional community. They are mostly just the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Con- followers of the Western countries’ plan in sequently, these elements formed the poten- regional and international policies. tial ground for the rise of ISIS in Syria. A young Muslim who regularly hears about Caliphate: the way out of the brutality of the Israeli Army (a reminder frustration that Islamic counties have been unable to cooperate to resolve the problem of Pales- No one knows how Arab leaders like Sad- tine for 70 years), and who has witnessed dam Hussein in Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi in invasions of 3 Islamic states by the Western Libya, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt or even countries during the past 15 years only, will Ben Ali in Tunisia would react to the cur- fall captive to ISIS’s message of waging rent developments in the Middle East if they war with everyone and compromising with were still in power. The battle between two no one. The majority of these men are se- sects of Islam is led today by cond or third generation Muslim immi- from one side and Iran from another with grants. They were often isolated in their Turkey – the EU member in spe – in be- own neighbourhoods and communities, tween. They will use any opportunity to deprived from any interaction with the rest take advantage of the evolving situation in of society. Unemployment and the sense of the region. In such a clash, ISIS seems to be being ignored in their homelands make a way out. them despondent or even averse. They prefer to fight alongside ISIS for revenge Every day young people like Siddhartha and for the establishment of the Islamic Dhar join the Islamic Caliphate, a group paradise promised to them by the ISIS’s claiming it is against both parties, and leaders. against the West, too. The majority of ISIS recruitment is from Tunisia, Jordan, and The frustration of the Muslim communities even Saudi Arabia – countries already ruled with both their native countries and the by Islamic regimes. But the point is that Western countries that have hosted them, as they are too busy spending their oil money well as a lack of solidarity in terms of re-

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gional and international issues, mostly about in Brussels, see themselves as creators of the question of Palestine, caused a massive the greatest Islamic Empire after the disso- power vacuum in the Islamic world. This lution of the Ottoman Empire. A uniform, gave a shining moment for extremist jihadi Islamic great power which will do every- groups. thing to shadow the power of the Western Civilisation. Islamic Caliphate propaganda promotes a state of freedom, in which all Sunni Mus- lims are equal, where Islamic justice is the The Author thanks the CIR’s staff - Małgorzata first and foremost principle. These messages Bonikowska, Michał Szczygielski and Agnieszka are popular among Muslims who are facing Ostrowska in particular - for the consultations and suggestions to the text. discrimination in their own countries

(whether Islamic or Western). On top of that, ISIS has proven that it can exercise its Mahan Charmshir power in reality. Though such demonstra- tion of strength is just promoting fear and hate, it appears that ISIS fans would be satisfied by just that, and believe that only the Caliphate has the ability to accomplish its target goal.

The Islamic Caliphate does not have a legal recognition or entity. This excludes it from diplomatic negotiations and official plat- forms for conducting international relations. Moreover, as a warrior against all, it has no allies among the world’s states. Its final goal is the establishment of the Islamic Caliphate and Sharia law, and on the path to do that it is an enemy of all and a friend to no one. Siddhartha Dhar and his colleagues, like the brothers el-Bakraoui who blew themselves

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